1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing a photograph print by printing a photograph image on a recording medium such as a printing paper and the like, and more specifically, to a method of producing a test print by producing a test print to check color density or the like, producing a round print, and deciding an optimum image processing condition, and to a method of printing photograph image using the method of producing the test print, when producing a high-magnification print or printing a volume of copies.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the conventional method of printing an image being taken to a photographic film such as a negative film, a reversal film and the like on a photosensitive material (a printing paper), mainly, a film image is projected on the photosensitive material, and then the surface of the photosensitive material is exposed, in which direct exposure (analogue exposure) is mainly performed.
Contrary to this conventional method, printing equipment using digital exposure, which is a digital photo printer, is put to practical use in recent years. The digital photo printer has been realized for carrying out photoelectric reading of an image recorded on the film, transforming the read image into a digital signal, carrying out a variety of image processing to produce an image data for recording, carrying out the scanning exposure of the photosensitive material by a recording light modulated corresponding to this image data, recording the image (latent image), and producing a (finished) print. When transforming the image into the digital image data, after carrying out the image processing, the digital photo printer can decide the exposure condition at the time of printing. Further, the digital photo printer can preferably correct a washed-out image or a flat image due to a backlight or an electronic flash taken, carry out sharpness processing, correct a color or a density failure and the like. Therefore, the digital photo printer can produce a high quality print, though the conventional printing equipment using direct exposure could not realize that. Since the digital photo printer can compose a plurality of images, partition an image into plural sections, and compose characters by carrying out the image data processing, it can flexibly output the edited print or processed print depending on the use. Further, the digital photo printer not only can output the image as a print (photograph) but also the image data directly on the recording medium. The printed-out image data can be applied to various purposes besides a photograph. On the other hand, the printer of the analogue exposure system has to record the photograph image on a printing paper to check the color density. Therefore, before producing the print (finished print) for the customer (production print), the printer of the analogue exposure system has to produce another print (test print) to check the color density or the like (test print). In particular, when the printer of the analogue exposure system produces high-magnification print, it reduces the size of the photograph print to thereafter carry out the processing required for making the color density equal. However, the image may be reproduced with a slightly different impression depending on the magnification of the print. Therefore, it is known that a preferable printing method in the printer of the analogue exposure system includes the steps of checking the quality of the image in the actually reproduced size, adjusting the image processing conditions, and printing the image.
This test print for checking such a color density is actually produced as a so-called round print, wherein for saving the consuming amount of the printing paper, the printer of the analogue exposure system includes the steps of cutting only one section respectively from a plurality of images or cutting a plurality of areas from one photo image, and recording the plural cut images on one piece of printing paper.
For example, JP 9-80643 A disclosed an example of the method of producing a round print. According to this document, when exposing the image for the test print to the printing paper, the example includes the steps of putting a mask having a narrow aperture width which is provided along the longitudinal direction of the printing paper on a negative film, transporting the printing paper by the length equal to the aperture width, adjusting gradually the exposure conditions during transporting the paper, printing sequentially the image, and producing the round print as the test print.
When a test print is produced in printing with the digital photo printer. When the printing quality is much important, for example, when producing a high-magnification print or printing a volume of copies, the digital photo printer often produces a test print. Then, the production (finished) print is produced depending on the quality of the test print. The digital photo printer records the image processing conditions of the test print to reproduce the quality of the test print on the production print. The production print is produced by a method of calling this image processing conditions.
However, there is an unfavorable problem for a photo processing shop in that the additional cost is incurred because a large-volume of paper (printing paper) is needed for the test print in printing at a high magnification. To reduce the amount of paper consumed for the test print, the printer reduces the size of the test print. However, though the printer tried to make the color density equal, the image sometimes has slightly different impression or difference in a finished image structure such as sharpness. Therefore, there is another problem in that the printer cannot always carry out the satisfactory check of the final printing quality depending on the magnification of the test print.
Further, when a digital laboratory equipment such as the digital photo printer is used, the digital laboratory equipment can vary various image processing conditions differing from the conventional analogue laboratory equipment. Therefore, when managing the image processing conditions skillfully to provide a best combination for each scene, the digital photo printer can produce a high quality print. However, it is difficult to decide the best combination. Therefore, there is a problem in that an inexperienced operator, in particular, takes much time and a volume of paper for this operation.